Dispatchers: Many 911 calls not emergencies

Published 11:24 pm, Sunday, August 22, 2010

It came over an area police radio dispatch one day, a desperate call for emergency action: "There's a squirrel in the (caller's) car and it refuses to leave."

It happens too often in taxpayer-funded 911 call centers throughout the region: People call emergency operators for silly or, at least, non-emergency reasons.

Dispatchers in the Fairfield County area said people call them to get directions, weather and accident reports -- or, frequently, just to ask what the non-emergency police number is.

Some dispatchers said they respond by explaining that 911 is not everyone's free information source. Others simply tell people to change one digit and call 411, or look up the non-emergency number themselves.

"They'll call in December and want to know because they're planning their parties in July," Marshall said. "It's outrageous. They think it's the only way to contact the police department. There's such a non-understanding of 911, the governor needs to continue her addresses."

Weird, funny, confused or just plain lazy, the callers who use 911 for non-emergency purposes were plentiful enough in Connecticut that Gov. M. Jodi Rell produced in 2007 two public service announcements, aired on television, to clarify the proper use for the universal police, fire and medical emergency number.

"Each year, over 2 million 911 calls are answered," the governor said in one of the announcements. "Many of these calls are accidental or inappropriate. 911 is not for general information. If you dial 911 by accident, stay on the line."

When Marshall has tried to educate fireworks callers about the true nature of the emergency line, they haven't wanted to hear it: "I've had people argue that they are having an emergency -- they need the information right now. I got that call last year. I was in shock."

"Those types of calls, to us, are more than a nuisance because they're tying up a line, they're tying up a dispatcher," Vance said. "That dispatcher should be open for someone who has a true emergency. Don't use 911 for non-emergent issues. It could prevent someone who's truly in need of help from getting that help immediately."

Vance added that most people understand when to call 911, and he estimated that less than 1 percent of callers are abusing the line.

Dispatchers put that number a bit higher, with one at State Police Troop G in Bridgeport estimating it around 10 percent or more.

In Ansonia, a woman called 911 because she lost her pet. "Have you seen my parrot?" she asked.

And recently, a woman called the Ansonia emergency line "screaming on the phone." All dispatcher David Blackwell could make out regarding the situation was the word, "bat," so he figured someone was swinging a threatening baseball bat around.

Turned out, it was a bat of the flying rodent variety, and the woman and her friend were locked in a bedroom while all the children were locked outside the house in fear of the tiny winged creature.

"There's probably more calls like that than there are actually serious 911 calls," Blackwell said. "At least down here where I work. People think that you call 911 and it solves all your problems."

In Monroe, calls about wild animals are common, said a town dispatcher. "You get some strange ones. After a while ... nothing is strange anymore," he said.

--`I got a possum walking around in circles in the yard,'" one caller told the dispatcher.

All cell phone calls in the region go first to Troop G, which then forwards them to the appropriate municipal departments, if necessary.

"I love when people call screaming at someone driving crazy on the highway," said Nancy Martin, a dispatcher for State Police Troop G. "You got a make and model?" she asks. --`Oh, no,'" people typically respond. --`They're driving so fast I didn't get a look. (But) you'll see it.'"

While crazy driving could turn into an emergency, there are also the "crazy animal calls" -- like complaints about squirrels or possums -- and the callers who are obviously elderly or children playing with the phone, Martin said.

"We get a lot of calls at night from old ladies ... 'Oh I'm lonely, I just want to talk to someone,'" she said.

Then, there are the people who call 911 to report other people having sex in cars at highway rest areas, those who call during snowstorms to find out if Interstate 95 is closed, and those who have lost power: --`When are my lights being turned on?'" she added.

Sometimes, hospital patients call to inform the 911 dispatcher that they need help getting out of bed and can't get a nurse's attention. Martin said she gets their room number and calls the attending nurse to look into the situation.

And then, there's the classic question fielded by retailers nationwide: --`What time are you open `til?'" she said.